How about addressing the issue of missing content instead of trying to re-download something that arrived broken. Not an option by the way short of manual file deletions and that is something that I would expect to go wrong on a system so unstable as to receive broken emails.

Or one infected with an antivirus program blocking normal usage (much more common than most folks think) I really doubt you problem is either Thunderbird or the IMAP server (Who is the provider?)

You last topic concluded with

I need to wait for it to happen again before I can try. But I assume it will not solve the problem because: Today (and this also happened before) I deleted an email. And later I needed this email again. But I could not find it anymore. If was not in the deleted emails folder, in none of them. I also could not find it by search. This did happened before. I tried the "repair" option here too, but no success.

The following will make a start towards understanding;

• Are using Shift Delete? That bypasses the trash/deleted folder for deletions.
• Could you please do the following?

1. Open the menu > Help > Troubleshooting Information, then click Copy text to Clipboard.
2. Go to https://pastebin.mozilla.org/, paste the clipboard by right clicking in the large text area, select paste from the menu, change the retention period to expire in 28 days, use the Paste Snippet button to create a page containing your info, then copy the resulting URL (address) of the page created.
3. Open a reply to this post, and paste the URL to your troubleshooting information you just copied.

Hello Matt

I'm sorry but this does not solve my Problem. It is possible that my Provider has a few Problems, that is what I assume. We had some difficulties here before, over the last years.

I am sure that the problem is not on my Computer(s) (have it on more than one). Also my Computers are not defective or infected.

If I repair the E-Mail Folder then its fine. But as I said I do not like to do it that way, because it mixes up all the Columns (Thunderbird resets that too in that case).

So the Question remains How can I re-download a single E-Mail from the Server ?

Thank you Nico

Matt was not trying to solve the problem. He asked for troubleshooting information that would help solve it.

Would you please paste the URL that Matt requested?

And answer his question about shift-delete?

Are you using an anti-virus program?

Hello Scooter

I have no Idea what shift-delete is ? So I can not answer that. I simply delete my emails when I'm done with them and Thunderbird moves them into trash and when I close Thunderbird then it makes the trash empty.

The whole Troubleshooting Information contains many personal data, which I can not post here (sorry). If you need to have few specific information I may be able to answer that. But mostly the Thunderbird is in standard configuration with only few changes. Also as I said I don't think it's a lokal problem.

It is just an error that occurs when you download >100 of mails each day. Then sometimes there will be faults. It' like downloading 1000 zip files, then there might be 1 than not be extracted. You would download it again and then it might work. Unfortunately that's what's not possible here with the email :-(

The 2 E-Mail are long gone, since we receive many emails and I can not keep every one. Yes, we use Software for Protection which is always on. I can not disable it after the problem happend, because then it's too late and won't change anything anymore.

99,9999% of all emails are fine. Just in very few cases missing the content or like last time this mixed content of 2 mails (they were next to each other). It would just help to re-download it. I wonder why there is no Button for that. Thunderbird can do so much, but this simple thing it can't ?

Thank you Nico

It isn't "simple" to rework the POP protocol. That happens to be how POP works. It's not Thunderbird.

??? It's not POP, it's IMAP, I said that. (with POP it would not be possible, yes, but that's not what I use)

IMAP: So the E-Mail is on the Server. The Client downloads it. Other Clients could download it too. I see no Problem there ?

The Client also can but does not have to save the E-Mail Content locally. So the Client can download the Content (again) whenever it wants. I know that because thats what Thunderbird is doing for older mails (not stored locally anymore, but only on the server).

So I really see no reason why Thunderbird should not be able to download any specific E-Mail again ? Also thats what Thunderbird is doing when I click on "Repair" of that E-Mail Folder. So it really must be possible.

It just would be nice if a simple "F5" on the E-Mail would Re-Download it. Thats all.

Repairing a folder does not re-download messages.

When I repair a folder, my columns do not change. I wonder why yours do.

Have you seen such a re-download function for IMAP accounts in other e-mail programs?

"Repairing a folder does not re-download messages." Yes it does ! It even shows that it is downloading E-Mails and it takes a while too. You can also see in at the Traffic during Repairing the Folder. Also what else would it do if not Re-Downloading ?

"When I repair a folder, my columns do not change. I wonder why yours do." I don't know.

"Have you seen such a re-download function for IMAP accounts in other e-mail programs?" No, because Thunderbird is the first Client I use for that.

You are right about the repair function. I should have checked that before responding. What else the repair function does is re-build the folder index.

So repair does what you want as long as it does not re-set columns. We could work on that problem. What happens to your columns? What version of Thunderbird are you using?

Yes. The Repair Function does what I want, but mixes up my Columns.

I use Version 115.18.0 (32-Bit)

But I did not try the Repair Function since some time now, after I found out that it mixed up the Columns. At least that is what I thought. Before that the Columns got mixed up every once in a while and I did not know what caused it. But it was a mess every time. All folders of that repaired E-Mail Account were affected.

After I found out I logged into my E-Mail Account to see the E-Mail there (since then no mixed up Columns anymore). That is also what I did before the Repair Function was suggested to me.

Since Thunderbird repairs everything it would make sense to also reset the columns to "repair" everything that a user might have changed here. Could be, I don't know. Just would makes sense to me. If you have not changed anything you will not see a difference. I removed some columns I don't need and added others. So I do see it.

My columns are customized. Repairing does not affect them. I doubt very much that the repair function is supposed to change column settings.

Have you tried the repair function lately?

You wrote that "But mostly the Thunderbird is in standard configuration with only few changes" and "we use Software for Protection which is always on".

Would you please tell us more specifically if you are using any add-ons? And is the "software for protection" an anti-virus app?

You also wrote: "I can not disable it after the problem happend, because then it's too late and won't change anything anymore." The idea would be to prevent the problem from recurring.

Please also re-start Thunderbird in troubleshooting mode ("Help" menu - "Troubleshoot Mode..."), repair a folder, and report whether or not the columns changed.

No, I have not tried the repair function lately. I did not want to mess up my columns.

This seems to be a lot of work :-( I can not handle that right now. But I will try it as soon as the same fault happens again and then let you know. Thank you.

Understood. We will be eager to hear.

I am a Programmer myself. So I understand why to investigate on a Problem.

But here I would stop and say to myself that a transfer problem like this can happen anytime / anywhere. You can not solve that. No Matter how long you try.

It is like with the 1000 Zip files...and 1 can not be extracted. Nobody would investigate here why 1 File is broken. It would be way easier and more helpful simply to add the "Re-Download" Button to just solve it. That is what I would do here.

I can only wonder why nobody else reported this problem or maybe they did but failed with providing all the data that is requested. It is not easy ... and time consuming ... and not that nice to ask me to intentionally try to mess up my columns. That is what I was trying to prevent, remember ? If they got mixed up then I have the mess and even more work.

It's not the only Problem we have with Thunderbird, I would wish for this to be solved too: (but I don't see how) - What if the email-server is temporarily not responding or just slow ? (also something that can happen and that you can not solve) Did really nobody try that scenario ? Thunderbird can not send emails in background / or just later ! You have to watch him send it and wait for it ! If that fails you can not send other mails. The windows keep staying open and they will never close until you close them, find the email, rewrite it, and then send it again. For daily use this is a nightmare - Free Outlook could that

- "True Reverse Mode" Showing new emails at the botton - not top - Free Outlook could that and scrolled down with every new email. In Thunderbird you can only change the sort order, but not the Rules for scrolling. Did really nobody try that ? I can only wonder. Especially as a Programmer. It could be so simple ... and so good.